GMKtec Gaming Mini PC K8 Plus AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS(8C/16T, up to 5.1GHz) 64GB DDR5 RAM 1TB SSD, Desktop Computer Dual NIC 2.5G, HDMI 2.1, USB4

Performs very well as a stand-alone front-end PC for my Plex server.
I will begin this review by saying, if you need a detailed technical review of the GMKtec K8 Mini PC, there are many good reviews on Amazon and YouTube that will provide you with performance details and the results of a variety of benchmarks.The review I am providing is specifically for those who are thinking of undertaking the daunting task of DVD and Blu-Ray library conversion to mp4 for storage on a Plex (or other) server. Like many people, my DVD and Blu-Ray collection fills a closet. I have been wanting to convert this collection to mp4 files for years, but that process is very time consuming and requires good supporting hardware and software. Not wanting a traditional Network Attached Storage (NAS) device with noisy hard drives contributed to this delay. The release of the Asustor Flashstor 6 NAS and price drop in M.2 SSD storage finally kicked me into gear and got me to start converting my library.Here is how my conversion process has evolved over the last few months and why I have settled on the GMKtec K8 Plus Mini PC to assist me in that effort. I hope you find it useful and apologize in advance if you find this long-winded.Conversion Process 1 – My initial effort at converting my library involved the following:1) Asustor Flashstor 6 FS6706T – 6 Bay All-SSD NAS Storage, Quad Core 2.0GHz, Six M.2 SSD, Dual 2.5GbE, 4GB RAM DDR4. Search the full specs on Amazon (the link is too long to post here).2) Three 4TB SSDs (Teamgroup MP34 NVMe 1.3 PCIe Gen3x4 M.2 2280), using as in RAID 5 configuration. This provides just under 8TBs of usable storage, and I can add up to 3 more SSDs, when needed. You can see the full specs on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C3VCD5Z8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=13) Teamgroup Elite DDR4 16GB Kit (2 x 8GB) 3200MHz. You can see the full specs on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08T1D76WH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=14) Plex Pass lifetime, which scours the internet for all the data pertinent for the movies, TV show and music uploaded onto the Plex server NAS.5) Sony BD-5300S Blu-Ray read/write drive (very old) within a Vantec NexStar DX external enclosure (USB 3.0).6) MakeMKV and Handbrake software (free versions).7) Acer Spin 3 laptop with an Intel i5-1035G1 processor, 256GB internal SSD and 8GB DDR4 Ram (circa 2020).With the Acer laptop computer and Sony drive, I used MakeMKV to convert DVDs to mkv files, then Handbrake to convert those to mp4 files, which are much smaller in file size. This worked well enough but was very time-consuming. For example, converting a DVD to an mkv file took 20 minutes plus an additional 3 hours to convert the mkv file to an mp4 file. With hundreds of DVDs in my closet, that process needed to improve. At this point in time, my Acer laptop was serving as host to my Asustor Control Center software, which was used to upload/organize the mp4 files onto my NAS (i.e., my Plex server).Conversion Process 2 – My second effort at converting my library involved the following additions:1) GMKtec G5 Mini PC, which has an Intel N97 processor (up to 3.60GHz), Windows 11 Pro, 12GB DDR5, and 512GB SSD. You can see the full specs on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0D1CG8Z9B/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=12) UGREEN 20Gbps M.2 NVMe SATA SSD Enclosure Compatible with 10Gbps USB C External NVMe M.2 Enclosure USB 3.2 Gen2. You can see the full specs on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D2NHJT6T?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title3) TEAMGROUP MP44 2TB SLC Cache Gen 4×4 M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 w/ NVMe SSD Read/Write Speed Up to 7400 / 6400MB/s. You can see the full specs on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C3VCD5Z8?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1I made these additions after a YouTube review of the GMKtec G5 Mini PC caught my attention. I was intrigued by its small size, components and the many positive comments on how well it worked as a front-end to a Plex server. I purchased a GMKtec G5 Mini PC and dedicated its use to Plex server duties via the Asustor Control Center where it performs well At that point I was very impressed with its features and capabilities and began to understand why so many people are transitioning away from the standard PC toward mini-PCs as their primary home/work computers. For my Plex purposes, the G5 performed the MKV conversions very quickly. Although the GMKtec G5 Mini PC performed the Handbrake conversion to mp4, it was not powerful enough and took far too long to complete. This means I found it necessary to transfer mkv files over to my Acer laptop for conversion to mp4. Once done, I uploaded the mp4 files onto my Plex server via the Asustor Control Center on the GMKtec G5 Mini PC.Conversion Process 3 – My latest effort at converting my library involves the following additions:1) GMKtec Gaming Mini PC K8 Plus AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS (8C/16T, up to 5.1GHz), 64GB DDR5 RAM and 1TB SSD. You can see the full specs on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DHPBF7R5?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=12) ASUS BW-16D1HT Blu-Ray (Libre enabled) read/write drive, which permits MakeMKV to convert Blu-Rays. I placed this drive in my existing Vantec NexStar DX enclosure.3) WinX DVD Ripper Platinum, which permits DVD conversion directly to mp4, without the MakeMKV/Handbrake 2-step.Still dogged by the slowness of mp4 process, and now in love with the GMKtec Mini PC form factor, I read more reviews and watched more YouTube videos about other more powerful GMKtec Mini PCs, among other brands. Specifically, I was looking for something that could seriously reduce the conversion time and work well as the front-end to my Plex server. My intent was to swap out the GMKtec G5 Mini PC, replacing it with the GMKtec K8 Mini PC thus eliminating the use of the Acer laptop entirely. After learning more about the GMKtec K8 Mini PC, I decided to give it a try and my experience using it in support of my Plex server is as follows:1) The GMKtec K8 Mini PC, with its AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS CPU and AMD Radeon 780M GPU, has significantly reduced conversion times.2) For DVD conversion – I now use WinX DVD Ripper Platinum to direct DVD conversion to mp4 without the need to use MakeMKV or Handbrake. The resulting conversion rate is nothing short of astounding, with a burn rate well above 350 FPS, often quite a bit higher. For example, the mp4 conversion of The Departed (2006), which is a 2-hour 34-minute movie, took only 10 minutes to complete.3) For Blu-Ray conversion – Unfortunately, Win X Ripper Platinum does not support the conversion of Blu-Rays. That means it does involve the two-step process of MakeMKV and Handbrake conversions. In addition, I learned this can only be done when using a “Libre enabled” Blu-Ray read/write device (my Sony drive is not “Libre enabled”). Visiting the MakeMKV forum, I learned about and purchased a Libre enabled ASUS BW-16D1HT Blu-Ray read/write drive, which in combination with the GMKtec K8 Mini PC makes the process of Blu-Ray conversion to mp4 files possible and faster than I expected, given the size and density of the Blu-Ray files. For example, converting 5 episodes of the Blu-Ray version of Firefly to mkv took 26 minutes and created 38.7GB of mkv files. Converting those mkv files to mp4 took another 73 minutes and created 24.9GB of mp4 files. The lesson here is, if you have a lot of Blu-Rays, it will require a lot of storage. My experience has been that Blu-Rays require about 10 times the amount of storage when compared to that of DVDs, likely because I choose to maintain their quality more.Conclusions and Recommendations:1) If you have a DVD, Blu-Ray and/or music library you have been wanting to convert and store your library on a personal Plex server NAS, I highly recommend the GMKtec K8 Mini PC. It performs very well as a stand-alone computer in making the conversions I need. I could not be more pleased.2) I should note that I could have opted to bypass the use of Handbrake and simply make one conversion via MakeMKV, then upload the mkv files onto my Plex server without conversion to mp4. My preference is to make that second conversion to further reduce file size, which Handbrake does well.3) The support staff at GMKtec are incredible and always very responsive to my many questions and I highly recommend you consider this vender.4) File backup is important! After all this effort, the last thing I need is discover is a “glitch” that has corrupted my files or lost altogether. My process is to file conversions first on my GMKtec K8 Mini PC, edit the file names to ensure correct titles. I then copy them to my external drive (i.e., 2TB SSD in UGreen enclosure), connect it to the GMKtec K8 Plus and upload the files onto my Plex server. Each time I do this, I check how correct Plex has been in assigning titles and related (i.e., title, release date, etc.). I have experienced about 1% error, usually because another movie has the same name, and found it necessary to edit the title to include/edit a word or parenthetically add the release date. Once is all correct, I duplicate those edits on my 1st external SSD drive, then copying that entire set of newly updated files onto my external 2nd SSD drive. For every set of files uploaded onto the Plex server, I use the Properties feature of File Explorer to compare/cross-check that the number of Files and the total Size are identical across my storage devices. Only then do I delete the files on the GMKtec K8 Plus Mini PC to free up space there.5) Running the GMKtec k8 Plus through the PassMark Performance Test (see photos), it scores very well in the overall PassMark, CPU Mark, Memory Mark and Disk Mark, all of which are essential for my needs. Performance test scores were lower for 2D Mark and 3D Mark (see photos).6) So, what happened to my G5? Did I ditch it? No way! I performs so well as the Asustor Control Center that I have decided to keep it in place as the front-end to my Plex server. This allows me to fully dedicate the GMKtec K8 Mini PC to DVD and Blu-Ray library conversion.Photos:I have included the following 3 photos of my set-up and 6 photos illustrating the Pass Mark Performance Test results:1) G5 on middle shelf with Asustor Flashstor on lower shelf2) Asustor Flashstor on lower shelf3) K8 Plus next to ASUS BW-16D1HT Blu-Ray (Libre enabled) read/write drive4) Pass Mark Rating 8214 (81st percentile)5) CPU Mark 31421 (85th percentile)6) 2D Graphics Mark 766 (59th percentile)7) 3D Graphics Mark 7404 (43rd percentile)8) Memory Mark 3589 (88th percentile)9) Disk Mark 38521 (90th percentile)

Very nice upgrade!
Gmktec has been putting out some stellar pc’s lately and this one tops the other two (k2,k4) that I own.With this apu and 64gb of ram, its handled every AAA title in my steam collection with ease. With the oculink connected to my gpd g1 I was doubling benchmark scores from my k4.Took a peak inside as I do all my computers, quality has always been high but seems better than average on this k8. The Transparent top and new larger top fans look nice and are effective. I had ZERO temp issues after a solid 12 hours of heavy benchmarking and gaming.Definitely my new favorite, worth every penny and I’ll continue to buy from them.A few weeks of heavy use later, I’m still extremely happy happy with my purchase. This thing absolutely destroys my old benchmark scores especially with my 7600xt connected via oculink.